Search results for: Water quality improvement.

Authors: J. Mbihi

Abstract:

This paper presents a dynamic architecture of digital duty-cycle modulation control drivers. Compared to most oversampling digital modulation schemes encountered in industrial electronics, its novelty is founded on a number of relevant merits including; embedded positive and negative feedback loops, internal modulation clock, structural simplicity, elementary building operators, no explicit need of samples of the nonlinear duty-cycle function when computing the switching modulated signal, and minimum number of design parameters. A prototyping digital control driver is synthesized and well tested within MATLAB/Simulink workspace. Then, the virtual simulation results and performance obtained under a sample of relevant instrumentation and control systems are presented, in order to show the feasibility, the reliability, and the versatility of target applications, of the proposed class of low cost and high quality digital control drivers in industrial electronics.

Keywords: Dynamic architecture, virtual simulation, duty-cycle modulation, digital control drivers, industrial electronics.

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Authors: N. Masoudnia, M. Fatahi

Abstract:

An experimental study of saturated pool boiling on a single artificial nucleation site without and with the application of an electric field on the boiling surface has been conducted. N-pentane is boiling on a copper surface and is recorded with a high speed camera providing high quality pictures and movies. The accuracy of the visualization allowed establishing an experimental bubble growth law from a large number of experiments. This law shows that the evaporation rate is decreasing during the bubble growth, and underlines the importance of liquid motion induced by the preceding bubble. Bubble rise is therefore studied: once detached, bubbles accelerate vertically until reaching a maximum velocity in good agreement with a correlation from literature. The bubbles then turn to another direction. The effect of applying an electric field on the boiling surface in finally studied. In addition to changes of the bubble shape, changes are also shown in the liquid plume and the convective structures above the surface. Lower maximum rising velocities were measured in the presence of electric fields, especially with a negative polarity.

Keywords: Single bubbles, electric field, boiling, effect.

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Authors: Randy Gomez, Keisuke Nakamura, Kazuhiro Nakadai

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Distant-talking voice-based HCI system suffers from performance degradation due to mismatch between the acoustic speech (runtime) and the acoustic model (training). Mismatch is caused by the change in the power of the speech signal as observed at the microphones. This change is greatly influenced by the change in distance, affecting speech dynamics inside the room before reaching the microphones. Moreover, as the speech signal is reflected, its acoustical characteristic is also altered by the room properties. In general, power mismatch due to distance is a complex problem. This paper presents a novel approach in dealing with distance-induced mismatch by intelligently sensing instantaneous voice power variation and compensating model parameters. First, the distant-talking speech signal is processed through microphone array processing, and the corresponding distance information is extracted. Distance-sensitive Gaussian Mixture Models (GMMs), pre-trained to capture both speech power and room property are used to predict the optimal distance of the speech source. Consequently, pre-computed statistic priors corresponding to the optimal distance is selected to correct the statistics of the generic model which was frozen during training. Thus, model combinatorics are post-conditioned to match the power of instantaneous speech acoustics at runtime. This results to an improved likelihood in predicting the correct speech command at farther distances. We experiment using real data recorded inside two rooms. Experimental evaluation shows voice recognition performance using our method is more robust to the change in distance compared to the conventional approach. In our experiment, under the most acoustically challenging environment (i.e., Room 2: 2.5 meters), our method achieved 24.2% improvement in recognition performance against the best-performing conventional method.

Keywords: Human Machine Interaction, Human Computer Interaction, Voice Recognition, Acoustic Model Compensation, Acoustic Speech Enhancement.

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Authors: Veli Ozbolat, Nehir Tokgoz, Besir Sahin

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Present study numerically investigates the flow field and heat transfer of water in two dimensional sinusoidal and rectangular corrugated wall channels. Simulations are performed for fully developed flow conditions at inlet sections of the channels that have 12 waves. The temperature of the input fluid is taken to be less than that temperature of wavy walls. The governing continuity, momentum and energy equations are numerically solved using finite volume method based on SIMPLE technique. The investigation covers Reynolds number in the rage of 100-1000. The effects of the distance between upper and lower corrugated walls are studied by varying Hmin/Hmax ratio from 0.3 to 0.5 for keeping wave length and wave amplitude values fixed for both geometries. The effects of the wall geometry, Reynolds number and the distance between walls on the flow characteristics, the local Nusselt number and heat transfer are studied. It is found that heat transfer enhancement increases by usage of corrugated horizontal walls in an appropriate Reynolds number regime and channel height.

Keywords: Corrugated Channel, CFD, Flow Characteristics, Heat Transfer.

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Authors: Ö. Öztürk, O. Şaman

Abstract:

Sesame is one of the oldest and most important oil crops as main crop and second crop agriculture. This study was carried out to determine the effects of different inter- and intra-row spacings on the yield and yield components on second crop sesame; was set up in Antalya West Mediterranean Agricultural Research Institue in 2009. Muganlı 57 sesame cultivar was used as plant material. The field experiment was set up in a split plot design and row spacings (30, 40, 50, 60 and 70 cm) were assigned to the main plots and and intra-row spacings (5, 10, 20 and 30 cm) were assigned to the subplots. Seed yield, oil ratio, oil yield, protein ratio and protein yield were investigated. In general, wided inter row spacings and intra-row spacings, resulted in decreased seed yield, oil yield and protein yield. The highest seed yield, oil yield and protein yield (respectively, 1115.0 kg ha-1, 551.3 kg ha-1, 224.7 kg ha-1) were obtained from 30x5 cm plant density while the lowest seed yield, oil yield and protein yield (respectively, 677.0 kg ha-1, 327.0 kg ha-1, 130.0 kg ha-1) were recorded from 70x30 cm plant density. As a result, in terms of oil yield for second crop sesame agriculture, 30 cm row spacing, and 5 cm intra row spacing are the most suitable plant densities.

Keywords: Sesamum indicum L., oil ratio, oil yield, protein ratio, protein yield

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Authors: M. A. M. El-Bendary, A. E. Abu El-Azm, N. A. El-Fishawy, F. Shawky, F. E. El-Samie

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With increasing utilization of the wireless devices in different fields such as medical devices and industrial fields, the paper presents a method for simplify the Bluetooth packets with throughput enhancing. The paper studies a vital issue in wireless communications, which is the throughput of data over wireless networks. In fact, the Bluetooth and ZigBee are a Wireless Personal Area Network (WPAN). With taking these two systems competition consideration, the paper proposes different schemes for improve the throughput of Bluetooth network over a reliable channel. The proposition depends on the Channel Quality Driven Data Rate (CQDDR) rules, which determines the suitable packet in the transmission process according to the channel conditions. The proposed packet is studied over additive White Gaussian Noise (AWGN) and fading channels. The Experimental results reveal the capability of extension of the PL length by 8, 16, 24 bytes for classic and EDR packets, respectively. Also, the proposed method is suitable for the low throughput Bluetooth.

Keywords: Bluetooth, throughput, adaptive packets, EDRpackets, CQDDR, low latency. Channel condition

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Authors: Mohamed K. Watfa, Khaled Abdel Naby, Chetan Govind Bhatia

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With the exponential rise in the number of multimedia applications available, the best-effort service provided by the Internet today is insufficient. Researchers have been working on new architectures like the Next Generation Network (NGN) which, by definition, will ensure Quality of Service (QoS) in an all-IP based network [1]. For this approach to become a reality, reservation of bandwidth is required per application per user. WiMAX (Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a wireless communication technology which has predefined levels of QoS which can be provided to the user [4]. IPv6 has been created as the successor for IPv4 and resolves issues like the availability of IP addresses and QoS. This paper provides a design to use the power of WiMAX as an NSP (Network Service Provider) for NGN using IPv6. The use of the Traffic Class (TC) field and the Flow Label (FL) field of IPv6 has been explained for making QoS requests and grants [6], [7]. Using these fields, the processing time is reduced and routing is simplified. Also, we define the functioning of the ASN gateway and the NGN gateway (NGNG) which are edge node interfaces in the NGNWiMAX design. These gateways ensure QoS management through built in functions and by certain physical resources and networking capabilities.

Keywords: WiMAX, NGN, QoS, IPv6, Flow Label, ASNGateway

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Authors: Aniruddha Bhattacharya, Pranab Kumar Chattopadhyay

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Optimal reactive power flow is an optimization problem with one or more objective of minimizing the active power losses for fixed generation schedule. The control variables are generator bus voltages, transformer tap settings and reactive power output of the compensating devices placed on different bus bars. Biogeography- Based Optimization (BBO) technique has been applied to solve different kinds of optimal reactive power flow problems subject to operational constraints like power balance constraint, line flow and bus voltages limits etc. BBO searches for the global optimum mainly through two steps: Migration and Mutation. In the present work, BBO has been applied to solve the optimal reactive power flow problems on IEEE 30-bus and standard IEEE 57-bus power systems for minimization of active power loss. The superiority of the proposed method has been demonstrated. Considering the quality of the solution obtained, the proposed method seems to be a promising one for solving these problems.

Keywords: Active Power Loss, Biogeography-Based Optimization, Migration, Mutation, Optimal Reactive Power Flow.

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Authors: Shreyash Sinai Kunde, Siddhang Tendulkar, Shiv Prakash Gupta, Gaurav Kumar, Suresh Mikkili

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One of the major power quality concerns in modern times is the problem of current harmonics. The current harmonics is caused due to the increase in non-linear loads which is largely dominated by power electronics devices. The Shunt active filtering is one of the best solutions for mitigating current harmonics. This paper describes a fuzzy logic controller based (FLC) based three Phase Shunt active Filter to achieve low current harmonic distortion (THD) and Reactive power compensation. The performance of fuzzy logic controller is analysed under both balanced sinusoidal and unbalanced sinusoidal source condition. The above controller serves the purpose of maintaining DC Capacitor Voltage constant. The proposed shunt active filter uses hysteresis current controller for current control of IGBT based PWM inverter. The simulation results of model in Simulink MATLAB reveals satisfying results.

Keywords: Shunt active filter, Current harmonics, Fuzzy logic controller, Hysteresis current controller.

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Authors: M. Venkatesan, N. Shenbaga Vinayaga Moorthi, R. Karthikeyan, A. Manivannan

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Homogeneous Charge Compression (HCCI) Ignition technology has been around for a long time, but has recently received renewed attention and enthusiasm. This paper deals with experimental investigations of HCCI engine using hydrous methanol as a primary fuel and Dimethyl Ether (DME) as an ignition improver. A regular diesel engine has been modified to work as HCCI engine for this investigation. The hydrous methanol is inducted and DME is injected into a single cylinder engine. Hence, hydrous methanol is used with 15% water content in HCCI engine and its performance and emission behavior is documented. The auto-ignition of Methanol is enabled by DME. The quantity of DME varies with respect to the load. In this study, the experiments are conducted independently and the effect of the hydrous methanol on the engine operating limit, heat release rate and exhaust emissions at different load conditions are investigated. The investigation also proves that the Hydrous Methanol with DME operation reduces the oxides of Nitrogen and smoke to an extreme low level which is not possible by the direct injection CI engine. Therefore, it is beneficial to use hydrous methanol-DME HCCI mode while using hydrous methanol in internal Combustion Engines.

Keywords: Hydrous Methanol, Dimethyl ether, Performance, Emission and Combustion.

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Authors: Rashidah Ghazali, Herlina Abdul Rahim, Mashitah Shikh Maidin, Shafishuhaza Sahlan, Noramli Abdul Razak

Abstract:

Sound exposure effects have been investigated by broadcasting a group of broilers with sound of Quran verses (Group B) whereas the other group is the control broilers (Group C). The growth rate comparisons in terms of weight and raw meat texture measured by shear force have been investigated. Twenty-seven broilers were randomly selected from each group on Day 24 and weight measurement was carried out every week till the harvest day (Day 39).Group B showed a higher mean weight on Day 24 (1.441 ± 0.013 kg) than Group C. Significant difference in the weight on Day 39 existed for Group B compared to Group C (p < 0.05). However, there was no significant (p >0.05) difference of shear force in the same muscles (breast and drumstick raw meat) of both groups but the shear force of the breast meat for Group B and C broilers was lower (p < 0.05) than that of their drumstick meat. Thus, broadcasting the sound of Quran verses in the coop can be applied to improve the growth rate of broilers for producing better quality poultry.

Keywords: Broilers, sound, shear force, weight.

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Authors: Zeynep R. Ege, Aydin Akan, Faik N. Oktar, Betul Karademir, Oguzhan Gunduz

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Early detection of cancer could save human life and quality in insidious cases by advanced biomedical imaging techniques. Designing targeted detection system is necessary in order to protect of healthy cells. Electrospun nanofibers are efficient and targetable nanocarriers which have important properties such as nanometric diameter, mechanical properties, elasticity, porosity and surface area to volume ratio. In the present study, indocyanine green (ICG) organic dye was stabilized and encapsulated in polymer matrix which polyethylene oxide (PEO) and chitosan (CHI) multilayer nanofibers via co-axial electrospinning method at one step. The co-axial electrospun nanofibers were characterized as morphological (SEM), molecular (FT-IR), and entrapment efficiency of Indocyanine Green (ICG) (confocal imaging). Controlled release profile of PEO/CHI/ICG nanofiber was also evaluated up to 40 hours.

Keywords: Chitosan, coaxial electrospinning, controlled releasing, indocyanine green, nanoprobe, polyethylene oxide.

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Authors: Khalid Al Siyabi, Angie Al Habib

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To measure or asses any government’s efficiency we need to measure the performance of this government in regards to the quality of the service it provides. Using a technological platform in service provision became a trend and a public demand. It is also a public need to make sure these services are aligned to values and to the whole government’s strategy, vision and goals as well. Providing services using technology tools and channels can enhance the internal business process and also help establish many essential values to government services like transparency and excellence, since in order to establish e-services many standards and policies must be put in place to enable the handing over of decision making to a mature system oriented mechanism. There was no doubt that the Sultanate of Oman wanted to enhance its services and move it towards automation and establishes a smart government as well as links its services to life events. Measuring government efficiency is very essential in achieving social security and economic growth, since it can provide a clear dashboard of all projects and improvements. Based on this data we can improve the strategies and align the country goals to them.

Keywords: Government, Maturity, Oman, Performance, Service.

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Authors: K. Sakthivel, R. Nallusamy, C. Kavitha

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The goal of image segmentation is to cluster pixels into salient image regions. Segmentation could be used for object recognition, occlusion boundary estimation within motion or stereo systems, image compression, image editing, or image database lookup. In this paper, we present a color image segmentation using support vector machine (SVM) pixel classification. Firstly, the pixel level color and texture features of the image are extracted and they are used as input to the SVM classifier. These features are extracted using the homogeneity model and Gabor Filter. With the extracted pixel level features, the SVM Classifier is trained by using FCM (Fuzzy C-Means).The image segmentation takes the advantage of both the pixel level information of the image and also the ability of the SVM Classifier. The Experiments show that the proposed method has a very good segmentation result and a better efficiency, increases the quality of the image segmentation compared with the other segmentation methods proposed in the literature.

Keywords: Image Segmentation, Support Vector Machine, Fuzzy C–Means, Pixel Feature, Texture Feature, Homogeneity model, Gabor Filter.

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Authors: A. Allirani, M. Suganthi

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Data gathering is an essential operation in wireless sensor network applications. So it requires energy efficiency techniques to increase the lifetime of the network. Similarly, clustering is also an effective technique to improve the energy efficiency and network lifetime of wireless sensor networks. In this paper, an energy efficient cluster formation protocol is proposed with the objective of achieving low energy dissipation and latency without sacrificing application specific quality. The objective is achieved by applying randomized, adaptive, self-configuring cluster formation and localized control for data transfers. It involves application - specific data processing, such as data aggregation or compression. The cluster formation algorithm allows each node to make independent decisions, so as to generate good clusters as the end. Simulation results show that the proposed protocol utilizes minimum energy and latency for cluster formation, there by reducing the overhead of the protocol.

Keywords: Sensor networks, Low latency, Energy sorting protocol, data processing, Cluster formation.

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Authors: Surakan Payakkhabut

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Studies of vocal communication in Sooty-headed Bulbul were carried out from January to December 2011. Vocal recordings and behavioral observations were made in their natural habitats at some localities of Lampang, Thailand. After editing, cuts of high quality recordings were analyzed with the help of Avisoft- SASLab Pro (version 4.40) software. More than one thousand element repertoires in five groups were found within two vocal structures. The two structures were short sounds with single element and phrases composed of elements, the frequency ranged from 1-10 kHz. Most phrases were composed of 2 to 5 elements that were often dissimilar in structure, however, these phrases were not as complex as song phrases. The elements and phrases were combined to form many patterns. The species used ten types of calls; i.e. alert, alarm, aggressive, begging, contact, courtship, distress, exciting, flying and invitation. Alert and contact calls were used more frequently than other calls. Aggressive, alarm and distress calls could be used for interspecific communication among some other bird species in the same habitats.

Keywords: Vocal communication, Call, Bird, Sooty-headed Bulbul

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Authors: Worachat Wannawong, Usa W. Humphries, Prungchan Wongwises, Suphat Vongvisessomjai, Wiriya Lueangaram

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A numerical analysis of wave and hydrodynamic models is used to investigate the influence of WAve and Storm Surge (WASS) in the regional and coastal zones. The numerical analyzed system consists of the WAve Model Cycle 4 (WAMC4) and the Princeton Ocean Model (POM) which used to solve the energy balance and primitive equations respectively. The results of both models presented the incorporated surface wave in the regional zone affected the coastal storm surge zone. Specifically, the results indicated that the WASS generally under the approximation is not only the peak surge but also the coastal water level drop which can also cause substantial impact on the coastal environment. The wave–induced surface stress affected the storm surge can significantly improve storm surge prediction. Finally, the calibration of wave module according to the minimum error of the significant wave height (Hs) is not necessarily result in the optimum wave module in the WASS analyzed system for the WASS prediction.

Keywords: energy balance equation, numerical analysis, primitiveequation, storm surge, wave.

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Authors: Fahad S. Ibrahim, Ewen Mclean, Mohammad M. Al Wahaibi, Ghazi .A. Al Shagaa, Adel H. Al Balushi

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The effect of varying holding temperature on hatching success, occurrence of deformities and mortality rates were investigated for goldlined seabream eggs. Wild broodstock (600 g) were stocked at a 2:1 male-female ratio in a 2 m3 fiberglass tank supplied with filtered seawater (37 g L-1 salinity, temp. range 24±0.5 oC [day] and 22±1 oC [night], DO2 in excess of 5.0mg L-1). Females were injected with 200 IU kg-1 HCG between 08.00 and 10.00 h and returned to tanks to spawn following which eggs were collected by hand using a 100μm net. Fertilized eggs at the gastrulation stage (120 L-1) were randomly placed into one of 12 experimental 6 L aerated (DO2 5 mg L-1) plastic containers with water temperatures maintained at 24±0.5 oC (ambient), 26±0.5 oC, 28± 0.5 oC and 30±0.5 oC using thermostats. Each treatment was undertaken in triplicate using a 12:12 photophase:scotophase photoperiod. No differences were recorded between eggs reared at 24 and 26 oC with respect to viability, deformity, mortality or unhatched egg rates. Increasing temperature reduced the number of viable eggs with those at 30 oC returning poorest performance (P < 0.05). Mortality levels were lowest for eggs incubated at 24 and 26 oC. The greatest level of deformities recorded was that for eggs reared at 28 oC.

Keywords: Goldlined seabream, Oman, R. sarba, deformities.

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Authors: Bashar Albaalbaki, Roger E. Khayat

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This work is a comparative study on the effect of Delaunay triangulation algorithms on discretization error for conduction-convection conservation problems. A structured triangulation and many unstructured Delaunay triangulations using three popular algorithms for node placement strategies are used. The numerical method employed is the vertex-centered finite volume method. It is found that when the computational domain can be meshed using a structured triangulation, the discretization error is lower for structured triangulations compared to unstructured ones for only low Peclet number values, i.e. when conduction is dominant. However, as the Peclet number is increased and convection becomes more significant, the unstructured triangulations reduce the discretization error. Also, no statistical correlation between triangulation angle extremums and the discretization error is found using 200 samples of randomly generated Delaunay and non-Delaunay triangulations. Thus, the angle extremums cannot be an indicator of the discretization error on their own and need to be combined with other triangulation quality measures, which is the subject of further studies.

Keywords: Conduction-convection problems, Delaunay triangulation, discretization error, finite volume method.

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Authors: Jinsuk Yang, Choongjae Joo, Kyoungsu Oh

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Existing methods in which the animation data of all frames are stored and reproduced as with vertex animation cannot be used in mobile device environments because these methods use large amounts of the memory. So 3D animation data reduction methods aimed at solving this problem have been extensively studied thus far and we propose a new method as follows. First, we find and remove frames in which motion changes are small out of all animation frames and store only the animation data of remaining frames (involving large motion changes). When playing the animation, the removed frame areas are reconstructed using the interpolation of the remaining frames. Our key contribution is to calculate the accelerations of the joints of individual frames and the standard deviations of the accelerations using the information of joint locations in the relevant 3D model in order to find and delete frames in which motion changes are small. Our methods can reduce data sizes by approximately 50% or more while providing quality which is not much lower compared to original animations. Therefore, our method is expected to be usefully used in mobile device environments or other environments in which memory sizes are limited.

Keywords: Data Reduction, Interpolation, Vertex Animation, 3D Animation.

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Authors: Koko Iwan Agus Kurniawan, Dwi Purnomo, Anas Bunyamin, Arif Rahman Jaya

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Fruters model is a concept of technopreneurship-based on empowerment, in which technology research results were designed to create high value-added products and implemented as a locomotive of collaborative empowerment; thereby, the impact was widely spread. This model still needs to be inventoried and validated concerning the influenced variables in the business growth process. Model validation accompanied by mapping was required to be applicable to Small Medium Enterprises (SMEs) agro-industry based on sustainable social business and existing real cases. This research explained the empowerment model of Yourgood, an SME, which emphasized on empowering the farmers/ breeders in farmers in rural areas, Cipageran, Cimahi, to housewives in urban areas, Bandung, West Java, Indonesia. This research reviewed some works of literature discussing the agro-industrial development associated with the empowerment and social business process and gained a unique business model picture with the social business platform as well. Through the mapped business model, there were several advantages such as technology acquisition, independence, capital generation, good investment growth, strengthening of collaboration, and improvement of social impacts that can be replicated on other businesses. This research used analytical-descriptive research method consisting of qualitative analysis with design thinking approach and that of quantitative with the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process). Based on the results, the development of the enterprise’s process was highly affected by supplying farmers with the score of 0.248 out of 1, being the most valuable for the existence of the enterprise. It was followed by university (0.178), supplying farmers (0.153), business actors (0.128), government (0.100), distributor (0.092), techno-preneurship laboratory (0.069), banking (0.033), and Non-Government Organization (NGO) (0.031).

Keywords: Agro-Industry, small medium enterprises (SMEs), empowerment, design thinking, AHP, business model canvas, social business.

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Authors: Thinh Ngo, Paul Rad, Brian Kelley

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Noise estimation is essential in today wireless systems for power control, adaptive modulation, interference suppression and quality of service. Deep learning (DL) has already been applied in the physical layer for modulation and signal classifications. Unacceptably low accuracy of less than 50% is found to undermine traditional application of DL classification for SNR prediction. In this paper, we use divide-and-conquer algorithm and classifier fusion method to simplify SNR classification and therefore enhances DL learning and prediction. Specifically, multiple CNNs are used for classification rather than a single CNN. Each CNN performs a binary classification of a single SNR with two labels: less than, greater than or equal. Together, multiple CNNs are combined to effectively classify over a range of SNR values from −20 ≤ SNR ≤ 32 dB.We use pre-trained CNNs to predict SNR over a wide range of joint channel parameters including multiple Doppler shifts (0, 60, 120 Hz), power-delay profiles, and signal-modulation types (QPSK,16QAM,64-QAM). The approach achieves individual SNR prediction accuracy of 92%, composite accuracy of 70% and prediction convergence one order of magnitude faster than that of traditional estimation.

Keywords: Classification, classifier fusion, CNN, Deep Learning, prediction, SNR.

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Authors: Pedro Pablo Ramírez Sánchez, Alassane Ballé Ndiaye, Roberto Rendeiro Martín-Cejas

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The aim of this paper is to analyse the different environmental policies adopted in Europe for car emissions, to comment on some of the possible perverse effects generated and point out these policies which are considered more efficient under the environmental perspective. This paper is focused on passenger cars as this category is the most significant in road transport. The utility of this research lies in this being the first step or basis to improve and optimise actual policies. The methodology applied in this paper refers to a comparative analysis from a practical and theoretical point of view of European environmental policies in road transport. This work describes an overview of the road transport industry in Europe pointing out some relevant aspects such as the contribution of road transport to total emissions and the vehicle fleet in Europe. Additionally, we propose a brief practice guide with the combined policies in order to optimise their aim.

Keywords: Air quality, climate change, emission, environment, perverse effect, road transport, tax policy.

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Authors: Isaac Kofi Mensah

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Public sector organizations, ministries, departments and local government agencies are adopting e-government as a means to provide efficient and quality service delivery to citizens. The purpose of this research paper is to examine the extent to which perceived usefulness (PU) of e-government services moderates between perceived ease-of-use (PEOU) of e-government services and intention to use (IU) e-government services in Ghana. A structured research questionnaire instrument was developed and administered to 700 potential respondents in Ghana, of which 693 responded, representing 99% of the questionnaires distributed. The Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) was used as the theoretical framework for the study. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used to capture and analyze the data. The results indicate that even though predictors such as PU and PEOU are main determiners of citizens’ intention to adopt and use e-government services in Ghana, it failed to show that PEOU and IU e-government services in Ghana is significantly moderated by the PU of e-government services. The implication of this finding on theory and practice is further discussed.

Keywords: E-government services, intention to use, moderating role, perceived ease-of-use, perceived usefulness, Ghana, technology acceptance model.

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Authors: Reza Bazargan-Lari, Mohammad Ebrahim Bahrololoom, Afshin Nemati

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Heavy metals have bad effects on environment and soils and it can uptake by natural HAP .natural Hap is an inexpensive material that uptake large amounts of various heavy metals like Zn (II) .Natural HAP (N-HAP), extracted from bovine cortical bone ash, is a good choice for substitution of commercial HAP. Several experiments were done to investigate the sorption capacity of Zn (II) to N-HAP in various particles sizes, temperatures, initial concentrations, pH and reaction times. In this study, the sorption of Zinc ions from a Zn solution onto HAP particles with sizes of 1537.6 nm and 47.6 nm at three initial pH values of 4.50, 6.00 and 7.50 was studied. The results showed that better performance was obtained through a 47.6 nm particle size and higher pH values. The experimental data were analyzed using Langmuir, Freundlich, and Arrhenius equations for equilibrium, kinetic and thermodynamic studies. The analysis showed a maximum adsorption capacity of NHAP as being 1.562 mmol/g at a pH of 7.5 and small particle size. Kinetically, the prepared N-HAP is a feasible sorbent that retains Zn (II) ions through a favorable and spontaneous sorption process.

Keywords: Natural Hydroxyapatite, Heavy metal ions, Adsorption, Zn removal, kinetic model, bone ash

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Authors: Olga Długosz, Jolanta Pulit-Prociak, Marcin Banach

Abstract:

The paper presents a process to obtain glutathione-modified titanium oxide nanoparticles. The processes were carried out in a microwave radiation field. The influence of the molar ratio of glutathione to titanium oxide and the effect of the fold of NaOH vs. stoichiometric amount on the size of the formed TiO2 nanoparticles was determined. The physicochemical properties of the obtained products were evaluated using dynamic light scattering (DLS), transmission electron microscope- energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (TEM-EDS), low-temperature nitrogen adsorption method (BET), X-Ray Diffraction (XRD) and Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) microscopy methods. The size of TiO2 nanoparticles was characterized from 30 nm to 336 nm. The release of titanium ions from the prepared products was evaluated. These studies were carried out using different media in which the powders were incubated for a specific time. These were: water, SBF and Ringer's solution. The release of titanium ions from modified products is weaker compared to unmodified titanium oxide nanoparticles. The reduced release of titanium ions may allow the use of such modified materials as substances in drug delivery systems.

Keywords: titanium dioxide, nanoparticles, drug carrier, glutathione

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Authors: Aussadavut Dumrongsiri

Abstract:

Westudy a dual-channel supply chain under decentralized setting in which manufacturer sells to retailer and to customers directly usingan online channel. A customer chooses the purchase-channel based on price and service quality. Also, to buy product from the retail store, the customer incurs a transportation cost influenced by the fluctuating gasoline cost. Both companies are under the revenue sharing contract. In this contract the retailer share a portion of the revenue to the manufacturer while the manufacturer will charge the lower wholesales price. The numerical result shows that the effects of gasoline costs, the revenue sharing ratio and the wholesale price play an important role in determining optimal prices. The result shows that when the gasoline price fluctuatesthe optimal on-line priceis relatively stable while the optimal retail price moves in the opposite direction of the gasoline prices.

Keywords: direct-channel, e-business, pricing model, dualchannel supply chain, gasoline cost, revenue sharing

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Authors: N. Sumathi, R. Srinivasa Rao

Abstract:

This paper presents the experimental results of 11 kV and 33 kV silicon composite insulators under artificial salt and urea polluted conditions. The tests were carried out under different seasons like summer, winter, and monsoon. The artificial pollution is prepared by properly dissolving the salt and urea in the water. The prepared salt and urea pollutions are sprayed on the insulators and dried up for sufficiently large time. The process is continued until a uniform layer is formed on the surface of insulator. For each insulator rating, four samples were tested. The maximum leakage current and breakdown voltage were measured. From experimental data, performance of test specimen is evaluated by comparing breakdown voltage and leakage current during different seasons when exposed to salt and urea polluted conditions. From these results the performance of the insulators can be predicted when they are installed in industrial, agricultural, and coastal areas. The experimental tests were carried out in the High Voltage laboratory using two stage cascade transformer having the rating of 1000 kVA, 500 kV.

Keywords: Silicon composite insulators, Urea pollution, Leakage current, Breakdown voltage, salt pollution, artificial pollution.

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Authors: Petr Teply

Abstract:

The New Basel Capital Accord (Basel II) influences how financial institutions around the world, and especially European Union institutions, determine the amount of capital to reserve. However, as the recent global crisis has shown, the revision of Basel II is needed to reflect current trends, such as increased volatility and correlation, in the world financial markets. The overall objective of Basel II is to increase the safety and soundness of the international financial system. Basel II builds on three main pillars: Pillar I deals with the minimum capital requirements for credit, market and operational risk, Pillar II focuses on the supervisory review process and finally Pillar III promotes market discipline through enhanced disclosure requirements for banks. The aim of this paper is to provide the historical background, key features and impact of Basel II on financial markets. Moreover, we discuss new proposals for international bank regulation (sometimes referred to as Basel III) which include requirements for higher quality, constituency and transparency of banks' capital and risk management, regulation of OTC markets and introduction of new liquidity standards for internationally active banks.

Keywords: Basel II, Basel III, risk management, bank regulation

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Authors: Şule Turhan, Özlem Turan

Abstract:

Permanence in the international markets for many global companies is about being known as having effective logistics which targets customer satisfaction management and lower costs. Under competitive conditions, the necessity of providing the products to customers quickly and on time for the companies which constantly aim to improve their profitability increased the strategic importance of the logistics concept. Food logistic is one of the most difficult areas in logistics. In the process from manufacturer to final consumer, quality and hygiene standards must be provided constantly. In food logistics, reliable and extensive service network has great importance and on time delivery is the target. Developing logistics industry provide the supply of foods in the country and the development of export markets more quickly and has an important role in providing added value to the country's economy. Turkey that creates a bridge between the east and the west is an attractive market for logistics companies. In this study, by examining both the place and the importance of logistics in Turkish food sector, recommendations will be made for the food industry.

Keywords: Logistics, Turkish food industry, competition, food industry.

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